The Knocking Summer Breeze
by Astrea Xenophon
Summary: Haruka and Takane one shot fluff. Set in the school. Rated T because I'm paranoid. Please enjoy!


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The school bell obnoxiously sounded the end of lesson and the start of break. "What is it?" she huffed nervously, spinning round in her chair to stare angrily at the space next to his head, not quite able to look him in the eye.

She had felt his eyes staring at her for the past half hour and she couldn't ignore it for a second longer. Her eyes gradually gained confidence and drifted to his face; he was smiling innocently, head tilted slightly to one side inquisitively. As expected of Haruka.

"Hmmm? Well?" She tapped her finger on the desk impatiently.

"I don't know what you'r-"

"You've been watching me for the past half hour, is there something you want!?"

Silence.

Haruka looked puzzled. "Am I not supposed to see Takane?"

She dragged an empty hand down her face in aggravation and sighed. Swallowing her embarrassment she slammed her hands down on the desk, causing Haruka to jump slightly, stood up, and stomped towards the door.

"Are you leaving?" Haruka's voice called out sadly from behind her.

She didn't want to turn and see his puppy face anymore than she wanted to apologise for her behaviour. Looking straight ahead, she said, "Aren't you hungry? We should get food."

As if on cue, Haruka's stomach thundered and Takane laughed. He bounded from his chair to join her by the door and giggled. He ran a hand through his thick black hair and stretched, wincing slightly. Takane frowned and began walking towards the school canteen. By way of explanation, Haruka yawned a reply to her earlier question, "I was trying to imagine how Takane would look with her hair down. Are we going to get food now? I think onigiri would be fun today, although I want to eat bread too..."

Her face flushed in embarrassment and she fumbled for a reply. She gave up and decided to ignore his strange explanation.

"We can get both onigiri and bread, dumbass," she declared as they padded down the corridor towards busier areas of school. The special needs section was always somewhat quieter than the rest of the school.

He laughed shyly, "Eheh, I was in a rush this morning, I forgot my lunch allowance so I only have enough to buy one today."

Takane turned her view towards him, unsure. It wasn't unusual for Haruka to forget everyday things. However when it came to remembering lunch or anything art related, he was faultless.

She crossed her arms in front of her and furrowed her brows in embarrassment. "Well... you buy onigiri and I'll buy bread. Then we can take it back to the classroom and share. That way you still get both, ok?"

It was like turning on high powered light in the middle of the night. He swung around to face her like a spotlight on an actor.

"Takane would really do that for me? Takane has never bought Haruka food before though, are you sure this is ok?"

"Yes, yes it's fine," she sighed. He was making her feel embarrassed by making such a big deal about it; it's just food after all.

They walked down the student-battered halls together as Haruka babbled about his excitement over today's lunch while Takane grunted replies.

It was a lazy day overall. The sun was warm but a cool breeze washed through the corridors and pulled at the trees outside gently. It cooled the stress of exams and students were lounging in the halls chatting peacefully.

The canteen, however, was chaos.

The canteen was always a nightmare with starving teenagers lunging towards the front of the queue and yelling above the noise to get an order in. The pushing and shoving often lead to someone getting hurt in the crush.

Takane spotted Ayano and Shintaro near the counter and yanked at Haruka's sleeve to stop him from entering the hell needlessly.

Takane shouted up to Haruka, "I'll get Ayano to get the food and bring it over here!" she pointed towards their friends.

Haruka nodded as Takane pulled out her phone and quickly texted Ayano. A few seconds later, Ayano was craning her neck to see over the crowd and waving. She gave them a cheesy 'ok' sign before being stumbling into Shintaro as the football team stormed the room.

Takane pushed Haruka outside the canteen where they would wait for Ayano and Shintaro. She hadn't spotted the judo club yet and they tended to be more ravenous than the football team. Getting caught in the canteen when the judo club appeared was like facing hell on Earth.

They stood in comfortable silence. Takane daydreamed about her adventures on Dead Bullet from the night before. Haruka shifted about in hunger.

It took Ayano and Shintaro about eight minutes to appear. They were slightly red faced, but over all appeared relieved to be free from the crush. Ayano handed the food to Haruka who visibly brightened while Takane fumbled for her purse. It was at this point that the judo club came racing down the corridor and screams were heard from the canteen. Ayano sighed in relief.

"We would eat with you guys, but I have to go to Maths department." Ayano looked down in embarrassment. "My grades have been slipping." she explained.

Takane handed Ayano the money. "Ah, no worries. Maths is an evil subject anyway. You'd have to have links with the devil to do well all the time." she glared at Shintaro.

Shintaro smirked.

Shintaro was annoyingly good at exams. Takane knew he didn't study much, yet he always finished with perfect grades.

It was so unfair.

Takane turned back to Ayano, "do you want us to come with you?" she questioned.

Ayano shook her head. "Shintaro is coming with me." Ayano leaned over to Takane and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "And it leaves you two with more aloooone time." she whispered in Takane's ear.

Takane could feel her face burning as she pushed Ayano away from her.

"I- I- I don't know what you're talking about!" Takane stuttered. She took note of Shintaro's confused, yet thoroughly amused face. In infuriated her.

Takane scowled "same could be said to you." she muttered.

Ayano laughed innocently. Shintaro's eyebrows furrowed further in confusion and Haruka frowned slightly.

"Anyway," Ayano diverted, "we should be going." she linked arms with Shintaro who protested slightly, still annoyed that there was something he had not understood. "I'll talk with you later!" Ayano waved as she ran off with Shintaro in tow.

Takane grunted in disapproval. Haruka looked at her with a puzzled face and she blushed further.

She stomped off without him in a huff. She knew he would follow anyway so it didn't really mean anything.

Ayano was annoying too sometimes. Why must she always tease her? Maybe Ayano and Shintaro really were made for each other. They were both annoying.

Takane stomped into the classroom and thudded onto her chair. She opened her desk roughly and grabbed a juice she had bought earlier.

Haruka slipped into the room noiselessly and leaned over her shoulder, "Takane has some interesting things in her desk." he stated.

She jumped and slammed the top down. Her desk was a mess and filled with broken pens and thoughtless doodles. Not interesting at all. But that didn't mean it wasn't private.

"You can't go looking at other people's stuff without permission!" she yelled, turning in her seat to glare at Haruka for being rude. She accidentally made eye contact.

_'Too close...'_ she thought.

His face couldn't have been more than ten centimetres from her own. She hadn't expected him to be so close. She had been planning to rant about privacy but the argument had fallen away with every other sensible thought.

She was wondering if she should pull away when he suddenly lifted her fringe with one hand, then pressed his forehead against her own.

He whispered worriedly, "Are you ill? You might have a fever."

"Uhm..." she tried looking away, which was difficult given the proximity, so she stared at the side of his face instead.

She felt like her head was going to explode as she searched for an answer, and found nothing. She panicked as she became despairingly aware of her breathing, which was picking up speed.

He turned slightly so that she would be looking him in the eyes again before asking another question. "Did Ayano say something to make you worry earlier?"

Takane stopped breathing. He knew. He had to have heard Ayano if he asked that. Even worse, maybe Ayano had betrayed her and told him.

"Did Ayano confess to Takane?"

Haruka looked deadly serious. He was blushing, not nearly so much as Takane though. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes looked a little sad.

Takane laughed despite herself. "No, nothing like that. Nothing like that I swear." She giggled. Feeling an odd mix of relief and disappointment, she pulled away.

Or she would have done had he not followed her. As he always followed her. The laughter died.

Nose to nose.

She could feel the heat from his face now. This was wrong. He was never supposed to guess. Maybe he was just playing with her though, except that wasn't in his character.

He paused before asking the next question, "...Did Shintaro confess to Takane?"

She shook her head ever so slightly, softly brushing against him. He nodded, closing his eyes slowly.

It wasn't fair. He was winding her up. Stalling on purpose and making her worry. It was definitely all Haruka's fault.

He brought one hand to her cheek, he pushed his nose past hers. and whispered even quieter.

"Am I a problem for you?"

She could taste his breath. Sickly sweet. He chanced opening his eyes and Takane saw they were filled with fear now. She felt guilty for having scared him. She knew that she was being selfish, and if anyone was at fault for this incredibly tense, incredibly embarrassing situation, it was her.

"I'm sorry", she choked.

He looked devastated. Haruka pulled away and turned away from her. At some point the bread and onigiri had been dropped onto the floor. Takane hadn't noticed. She buried her face in her hands for the shame.

"I'm sorry for having troubled you." Haruka said, his voice cracking a little. "I never meant to make you feel awkward. Though, I guess maybe I did. I've been really selfish haven't I?" He brought a hand to his face. Haruka inhaled like he was about to say something else, then shook his head and made to leave the classroom.

Takane almost died. He had completely misunderstood her. And he was leaving.

Takane jumped up from her chair and pulled him backwards into the classroom by his arm. She slammed the door shut for good measure too. Then she strode up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She buried her face in his chest so that she wouldn't have to look at him.

"I meant, 'I'm sorry for having made you worry'. You've never been a problem. I've never really had a friend before you, so I'm sorry if I get things wrong sometimes." she was crying, but keeping up her usual thorny front was useless now. "You should never have thought you were ever a problem to me. I'm the problem, I did something wrong if you've been thinking that."

Haruka pried her away to see her face. He felt confused.

Takane took her arms back from around Haruka's waist and covered her face with her hands. "I- I'd never been so happy, to have such good friends." She wiped her eyes furiously and tried to steady her voice. "But Haruka will always be very special to me."

He pulled her hands away from her face slowly. She refused to look at him though. He wanted to be more than a friend to Takane. He wanted to know the boundaries of 'very special'. He felt embarrassed and wanted to cry with the exasperation and pain.

"Very special..." he repeated, not knowing what else to say.

She could see the confusion. She groaned inwardly, she really didn't want to say anything else but leaving things here could be dangerous. As awful as the situation was, it would be worse if it happened again.

She opened her mouth to speak when Haruka interrupted her. "I had a dream." he said. He was looking off into the distance as he tried to recall the memory. "Takane was there, but I didn't remember you." He let go of her wrists and let his arms fall to his sides and cast his eyes to the floor. "I woke up feeling scared and hungry."

Takane grabbed onto his arms for leverage and pulled herself to be eye level with him, she closed her eyes and kissed him lightly on the edge of his mouth.

Then she realised what she had done and jumped off him, spun round and started panicking again. He had just looked so vulnerable and hurt there, and she wasn't getting through to him with words anyway. How was she going to explain that though?

He pulled her to him a little roughly and she stumbled into his arms ungracefully. He said nothing and she panicked further. Her heart was racing. Haruka brought his head down to hers until they were nose to nose again. She suddenly felt extremely conscious of her limp arms and awkwardly wrapped them around his back.

Then the panic stopped suddenly and she felt comfortable. A breeze washed through the classroom and she closed her eyes. It was only Haruka, and she didn't trust anyone else in the world more than him.

"Can I kiss you now?" he asked tentatively and she nodded.

It was at this moment that their teacher, Tateyama, wolf whistled from the classroom doorway. "It's kinda hot in here isn't it? Ayano's going to be so happy when she hears about this over dinner tonight!"

The pair stood frozen in horror as Tateyama ran out from the doorway. His maniacal laughter echoing down the corridors. Takane slumped onto the floor and buried her head in her arms. Ayano would tell Shintaro about this. She would never hear the end of it.

As if on cue, Haruka's stomach rumbled. "I'm huuuuungry." He whined and crawled over to the bread and onigiri which was still on the floor, safely wrapped.

Takane cursed Tateyama. She would have revenge for this.

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R&amp;R, if you want to... I guess? ^D^' Thanks for reading~


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